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Barbed Wire, Windmills and Railroads – The Technology that Really Won the West.

Quartzsite Community Center 295 E. Chandler, Quartzsite, AZ, United States

In Arizona and throughout the West, three innovations helped make farming and living possible: Windmills brought groundwater to the surface, barbed wire sectioned the vast landscape into parcels, and railroads moved men, women, families and materials from back east. In the old West, there were over 8 million windmills, a man caught cutting down a […]

For the Love of Turquoise

Pima County Public Library - Oro Valley Library Branch 1305 W. Naranja Drive, Tucson, AZ, United States

Turquoise has a long standing tradition amongst Native cultures of the Southwest, holding special significance and profound meanings to specific individual tribes. Even before the more contemporary tradition of combining silver with turquoise, cultures throughout the southwest used turquoise in necklaces, earrings, mosaics, fetishes, medicine pouches, and made bracelets of basketry stems lacquered with piñon […]

Chiles & Chocolate: Sweet and Spicy Foods in the American West

Phippen Museum 4701 U.S. HWY 89N, Prescott, AZ, United States

Come have a taste of the rich and savory history of these food favorites, explore how early peoples used them, and how they have evolved and spread to all corners of the world. Food is a portal into culture and can convey a range of cultural meaning including occasion, social status, ethnicity, and wealth depending […]

Tucson’s Black Community and School Segregation

Dunbar Pavilion - Historic Building 325 W. 2nd Street, Tucson, AZ, United States

In 1909 the Territory of Arizona amended its compulsory school attendance bill to give cities and counties the ability to segregate their schools. Inspired by the change in the law, the Tucson school board conducted a rapid search of available buildings, settling on an abandoned mortuary. Shocked by this unsettling turn of events, Tucson’s Black […]

Honky Tonks, Brothels and Mining Camps: Entertainment in Old Arizona

Prescott Public Library 215 E. Goodwin St., Prescott, AZ, United States

In pioneer Arizona, among the best places to experience the performing arts were in the mining towns. Striking it rich meant having disposable income, and miners, like the well-heeled of the Gilded Age, wanted to demonstrate their sophistication with culture. From the early popular music of ragtime and minstrelsy during the forming of these communities, […]

The Ballad of Arizona

Sun Lakes Methodist Church 9248 East Riggs Road, Sun Lakes, AZ, United States

Originally conceived to celebrate Arizona’s Centennial in 2012, “The Ballad of Arizona” has been updated to provide a more complete survey of important, but often little-known, chapters of Arizona’s unique history. A blend of music, video, and lecture, “The Ballad of Arizona” is similar to “A Prairie Home Companion” but with an Arizona twist. The […]

Arizona’s Great Escape

Copper Queen Library 6 Main St., Bisbee, AZ, United States

During the night of Christmas Eve in 1944, twenty-five Nazi German prisoners of war escaped from Papago Park POW camp on the outskirts of Phoenix and headed towards Mexico. These men were hardcore Nazis, ex U-boat commanders, and submariners, who had successfully dug a nearly 200-foot underground tunnel that took four months to complete. Many […]

Arizona: a History of Snake Oil Salesmen, Scams, and Hoaxes

Florence Community Library 778 N. Main St., Florence, AZ, United States

Since the earliest days, Arizonans have been visited by entrepreneurs offering all kinds of get rich quick schemes. Benefitting from tales of abundant resources in the territory, limited law enforcement and communication, a scoundrel could create enticing promise of riches and success without much external oversight. Newspapers often fanned the hysteria only to later denounce […]

The Gila: River of History

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument - Visitor Center Theater 1100 W Ruins Drive, Coolidge, AZ, United States

Six hundred miles long from its source in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico to its confluence with the Colorado River above Yuma, the Gila has been an important avenue for the movement of birds, animals, plants, and peoples across the desert for millennia. Many cultures have sprung up on its banks, and millions of […]

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